Monday, May 31, 2010

I got up and washed all the Sunday dishes that I refuse to wash on the Sabbath, and started the laundry, even though I had to sneak things on and off of the clothesline due to the weather. I cut out an outfit from an old doll-clothes pattern that I had saved from WAY BACK, nearly 30 years ago, when MY little girl played with me dolls.
This baby doll that I bought second-hand, has a muslin body that comes all the way to her hands and her feet, so I was blessed that this patten included a long-sleeved top and pants. She really needs a bonnet or hat, doesn't she?

The doll was found

at a local second-hand store, and it says da-da (with a stutter sometimes), night-night, I love you, and she giggles. It's tiny, 12 inches, and Allyssia just loved it and tried to mimic it's voice.

During the making of the outfit, I heard the neighbor mowing his yard, and I thought that I should go and mow near the mailbox, so he could tell where I start and stop (he's been away for awhile). I had to stop the mower for some reason when the hubby hollered at me, and then it wouldn't restart. So I just headed right back to the sewing machine. In a little bit, I heard the mower restart, and knew that hubster was waiting for me to come back to it. He mowed last week, but then he fell again, this time at Church, and has been moving from the walker, to his cane, and now to a painful limp, so I had to take over the mowing chore.

I finished the yard, finished the outfit, and then made two aprons for the hubs to wear when he has his dinner in the recliner. After visiting with family for an hour or so, I decided to cut out and make an extra couple of aprons for 'whatever'........good thing to have on hand. The picture's terrible, but that's two of the purple aprons, and two tan and black for hubby.

I forgot to mention the other day that I had put out a 'garden'. This is it folks....

.....it consisted of two tomato plants, and 5 marigold plants (the 'stink' of them is supposed to repel bugs from the tomatoes) Yesterday,I found a volunteer tomato plant growing out at the mailbox garden, so I transplanted it today, to right in the middle.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

She weighed only 5 lbs when she was born, and doesn't weigh but maybe twice that now, and yet she is starting to pull herself up, and she crawls. It's the cutest thing.........she seems too little for any of that , but even mimics me when I say "uh-oh!", and the baby doll when it says "da-da".

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Here's a photo showing how I solved the problem of not being able to quilt all the way to the edge........I went around 3/4 of an inch from the edge, all the way around the quilt. Then I straight-line quilted it. I tried some meandering, but the tension on the other side made the thread just lie there........it looked awful, so I took it out.

I actually looked up an old ruffler that I remembered having,

that fits my old Singer machine, and used it to make my ruffle.

I had some awkward moments with it, but all in all, I was quite satisfied.

I then cut the corners of the quilt off round,

by using my pin container's lid and my rotary cutter.

Next, sewing through only the batting and the topone side,

I applied the ruffle with a quarter-inch seam, splicing the ends of the ruffle

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Well, after all, it's just a doll-quilt top........it should finish just about 19 inches square, besides the ruffle. But see how cute it'll look with a ruffle around it? I laid it on top of the other little quilt, obviously. I may want to make a ruffle that finishes more like 1 1/2 or 2 inches, rather than one inch like this one.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Wow.........this Spring's Bloggers' Quilt Festival is NO DISAPPOINTMENT, huh?
I have seen so many quilts that inspire me, some making me long to do one JUST LIKE the one I see !

But, right now, I have just a small piece of my next little quilt in mind. I don't know what the design of either side will be, but it MUST have a little ruffle like this one has.

Never thought I'd want to make another ruffle on a quilt. I made this one in 1987 or so, on this little log-cabin sampler quilt. I didn't care for the making of it, and figured I'd been there, done that, end of story.
But this week, 1 1/2 year-old Autumn Taylor was over and we were playing dolls (hooray, a little girl who still loves dolls !), and when I wrapped her baby in this quilt, the ruffle just made it adorable ! All I've ever done is put the quilt on a table or chair as decoration, but the size and ruffle are perfect for a girly-girl's doll.

So that's my starting point........back to seeking inspiration ! Boy did I pick the wrong time to switch to a slower internet connection.
Hope you're enjoying the 'show', and thank you to all of my new followers........hope to have some better posts soon !

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I jumped the starting line by sharing pictures of this quilt a couple of days ago ...more of the making of this quilt can be found in my 2 previous posts; just click "older post" when you have finished reading this one if you're interested in who, how, and why this quilt was made... I wish I hadn't shown it already , but many of you haven't read my blog before, so I wanted to share it with you as my entry.

Front of quilt

To me, this quilt sums up a year of being exposed to younger, more contemporary quilters. I didn't know about the quilt festival last Spring, but participated last Fall. That entry reflected my former quilting history.

I am in love with the simpler lines and methods of today's quilts. Machine-quilting is a joy to me now, and although I'd never want to give up making hand-quilted quilts, I now appreciate the convenience, and, yes, the beauty, of a machine-quilted quilt, and one has to mention.........THE SPEED of FINISHING !

back side of quilt

One of the HUGE differences I can now enjoy is the use of pieced backs........now, I don't mean the two seams used to piece together yardage of a single fabric for a back (yes, girls, that's OLD SCHOOL......that's what me and MY girlfriends called 'a pieced back'). No, I mean that since I no longer have to worry about forcing my hand-needle through multiple seams, I can enjoy a whole separate quilt design on the other side of the quilt.........it's almost wrong to even call them backs anymore !

Photo of quilt's binding (and hidden label)

I bound the quilt yesterday, finishing today, and decided to use the 'dirty green' for the bottom and top borders, and the tan for both sides, with just a little swatch of the red-orange thrown in for pop. Now unlike today's modern quilters, who know the name of every fabric they use (sort-of reminds me of a certain girlfriend of mine from the old days----Jodie !) I do not know the name of these solids, and they are certainly not today's Kona's. The pale turquoise was always referred to as "Byrd's turquoise", by Wanda, Jodie and me, as we all bought it at a little store, called "Byrd's", in McLoud, Oklahoma, when they put their fabric on sale once. We had so much yardage of their solids, and kept them for so long, that most of them had a faded mark along the fold line when we did get around to trying to use them. In fact, that was the only fabric in these strips that was cut along the lengthwise grain, because of that faded line, and let me tell you, it caused me a lot of trouble trying to get it not to make the other strips pucker when I stitched them to it !

Label of quilt

When searching for a label, I ran across little mini-motifs that were leftover from T.J.'s baby transportation quilt, and one of them, the boat, was just perfect for a label........the colors are exactly the same as what is in the fishing-village fabric.......my LORD does little things like that for me all the time.........HE is so good !

Here are a couple of photos of the quilt after pulling it out of the dryer. I need to learn to make sure that the entire quilt is equally quilted, as the big blank rectangles tend to kindof wrinkle up differently from the more concentrated areas, after washing and drying. Still, all in all, it's my favorite quilt I've made in awhile.

I hope to get it boxed up and sent off to Seth, in Oklahoma, very soon.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Feel free to click on the "follow" button ---> if you think you'd like to keep up with my blog........I love to find fellow crafters who are interested in the same things as me !

And, remember,........ if you haven't already read of the beginning of this quilt, it's story is in the next two posts you find here.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The reason I didn't know who this quilt was for, yesterday, is that I had started out to make my third grandchild a quilt for his first birthday. I had a nice big piece of flannel that his Aunt Jody had procured for him, ..... green with little turtles all over it (in honor of his mommy's lifelong turtle collection). Well, somehow in the planning of that quilt, this one slowly took over and appeared. When it was finished, I could see that the turtle fabric just would not be right for the back, so I didn't think it was HIS quilt.

But, Leslie said that the right fabric would always find me, and she was right. The funny thing is that the quilt-top looks like I chose colors from the sailing fishing-village fabric, but I didn't! In fact, when I see the new turquoise/red combinations in quilts, I usually cringe..........I can't stand those colors together........until now.
Before going to bed LAST night, I already had the fabrics picked, laid out, and ready to cut today. I went right to work on it as soon as I could today, and when finished, I lay the 3 layers on top of two cutting mats on my bed, and proceeded to pin-baste with my basting safety pins. I started the machine-quilting, fussing everytime the hubster wanted something to eat.........can you believe that he thinks it's alright to eat THREE times a day. Now a normal day might call for that, but NOT a day WHEN I'M QUILTING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, as you can see, he didn't slow me down too badly ! I now need to choose binding fabric(s) and get to work on that so that I can get this little jewel mailed off to Seffers in Oklahoma. His birthday is tomorrow, May 19th (actually probably today while you're reading this), and I never thought his first birthday would come with me still having never met him, or held him, or kissed him, or smelled his little head ! OH !

But praise the LORD for today's communication devices and photographic wonders ! He's still my little munchkin, I'd know him anywhere, and I"ll just make up for lost time when I DO get my granny hands on him !

I totally should give credit to Film in the Fridge for her inspiration over the months. After seeing so many strip quilts on her site, I guess the idea just decided to manifest itself if I wasn't going to actively pursue making one ! And, as I've mentioned before, the backs of her quilts, and the ones from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, have totally changed my quilting life ! Thanks girls !

Friday, May 14, 2010

My daughter requested photos of the outcome of my little accident. In order to dispel the idea that I was mortally wounded, I'm posting one here, too. I may be scarred, but I can talk, and as a saying goes that I saw today, if I can talk, I can SING !

And sing I will, as we went to hubby's 3 month, post/hipsurgery checkup today, and he is doing so well ! The doctor didn't think he'd be walking without a walker, so he was thrilled to see him walking unassisted, with just a bit of a limp. Praise the LORD for his healing, once again ! Sing to the LORD, all ye nations !

Oh, and I found another cool rock ! Remember this post from last year? Well, it was nothing like that, except that it has a really cool shape...........

Hubby and I have been walking up and down our little street, gathering big rocks from the washoff ditch, to put around my mailbox flowerbed and the flowerbed at the end of the trailer. I spotted this goodie yesterday or day before that, and it reminded me of "home" ! (Oklahoma)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

..........that is my most precious allotment! He is my portion, and my strength........and my JOY !

A little bit of fabric every now and then is good, too ! I found these triangles in a ziploc baggy today, and just stitched them onto some new white pillowcases, rawedges and all ! Aren't they fun and bright?

I fell today, coming up the back steps of my trailer porch, and thought that when I caught myself on my hand, that that would be the worst of it........just some bruising and a bit sore for a day or two. But then, quicker than you can think, BAM !, my face/mouth HIT THE PORCH just solid ON ! Wow, I've never in my life felt anything like that !
First thing I thought was, "oh, no, did I break my false teeth?" I banged and banged on the porch with the heel of my hand, for hubby to come. He finally heard me, and by the time he reached me, blood was just dripping all over the porch ! It hurt like nobody's business !
I got into the house and cleaned up my face and had two crescent shaped cuts on the upper lip, outside, and a cut on the inside of the upper lip. I thought about going to see if I needed stitches, but, number one, I don't know if they even do that here at the clinic, and number two, I thought that stitches would make the scar worse than it was going to be already (vanity, thy name is Dolly). So, I cleaned it and iced it and sat down before I thought I was going to pass out !

All is well, and the swelling is going down. Praise the LORD for his goodness and healing !

Back to quilting, I got a call from Aunt Edith before I left for Church tonight. She received the two quilts today and is DELIGHTED. She said that the baby quilt is just beautiful, and of the quilt that I made her, she said that she never expected me to make her anything so beautiful in her lifetime ! Can you imagine.......it was just a simple quilt, although made with lots of love. I'm just so happy to have a little piece of my work there in her home.......it somehow makes me feel so much closer to her. She said that the cover on her bed is a vanilla color, so the quilt matches her bedroom beautifully. She's going to give the baby quilt at the baby shower on Saturday and is sure that they'll treasure it. I am so thankful to the LORD for giving me the ability to work with my hands in some small way.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to go through some of my boxed up sewing stuff and see if I could stand to part with any of it. I wound up throwing out quite a bit of old paperwork I'd saved, and I put a few things in a yard-sale pile. But this one pattern that I found kept tugging at me........so I set it aside on my sewing machine...then drafted it on EQ7 so that I don't have to hang on to the paper pattern. That's it in my banner today.

Later, I decided to cut a few triangles and play around with it for a bit. I got a layout that I liked, so I sat down and pieced it together. After cutting out a tail to applique, I pinned it to the block, pinned the block to my bedroom curtain, and went to bed contemplating what I'd do with the pretty little thing once it was finished.

I considered a pillow, and then I remembered that a new friend that I have made down at the nursing home is having a birthday this coming Sunday, so I thought that it would be fun to tease her by saying that I'd gotten her a cat for her birthday. I rejected the pillow idea and decided to make her a bag that she can tie onto the back of her wheelchair to carry around the little things that she wants to keep with her. With the ties, she can adjust it to just the right height, and if she ever wants to carry it like a regular bag, she can just untie the way they're tied front to back, and just tie them into loops like totebag handles.

I used a ribbon fabric for the inside, signifying the fact that it is a gift, and I included a long, sectioned pocket that can hold an ink pen, a cell-phone, and keys or wallet (or little notebook, maybe?)

I put an outside pocket on the back side of the bag, but wish that I had made IT snazzier looking.

I hope that she likes it ! She's around my age and has lost both legs

below the knee, to diabetes, I suspect. She was the

first person to befriend hubby and myself when he went

into the nursing home. She taught us the ins and outs of the place, hurrying

Monday, May 10, 2010

Saturday, May 8, 2010

I never have trouble coming up with a name for my quilts..........they usually name themselves while I'm working on them.
Truly, I must have made this one WAY TOO FAST, becausethe poor baby remains nameless.

But he doesn't remain unbound !

The wind and sun tried it's best to keep me from photographing this one, too, but I prevailed !

First, a shadow or three.......

Then, too much sun......

Then the wind.........

and MORE wind !

Finally, I tried another inside shot......

Still no luck ! Actually, my best shot was in the computer room, while the quilt was resting

beside me on a stool !

I kept trying ~!~

I think that I was afraid that the quilt would get all wonky when I washed it........

you see, I haven't used polyester batting alot

in the last few years, and I am more familiar

with the wonderful soft drape of a cotton batted quilt.

But, as you can see, Aunt Edith's quilt puckered up just right, and both quilts are ready to be wrapped, boxed, and shipped off to Michigan.

I had forgotten that quilts made with polyester batting would do the 'crinkle thing' too !

Ooh, how I love the look of them fresh out of the dryer !

Many thanks to QuiltingCyclist for her name suggestion below in my comments......I think that's just the perfect name !